Judd Apatow

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Biography

Judd Apatow (born 6.12.1967)

Judd Apatow is an American film director, producer and screenwriter.

Judd Apatow: Childhood

Judd Apatow was born in Syosset, New York. He was raised in a Jewish family and has an older brother, Robert and a younger sister, Mia. His mother worked at a comedy club, whilst his father was a property developer.

When Judd was 12 years old, his parents divorced each other and Judd lived with his father, visiting his mother on weekends.

At school, Judd indulged his passion for comedy when he hosted a radio show called 'Club Comedy' on his high school radio station, at Syosset High School. Using his mother's comedy club contacts, he interviewed Howard Stern, John Candy, Jerry Seinfeld and Garry Shandling, for the show.

Judd Apatow: Comedy Career

Judd Apatow's stand up career started at the age of 17, when he was in his final year of high school. When he graduated, he moved to Los Angeles, where he enrolled on the screenwriting course at the University of Southern California. Whilst at university, he organised the campus comedy night, featuring the likes of Kevin Nealon.

After two years at university, Apatow dropped out and moved into a flat with fellow comedian Adam Sandler, who he had met at a comedy club called The Improv.

Apatow's stand-up career failed to take off so he started writing jokes for established comedians such as Roseanne Barr, as well as appearing on 1992's 15th Annual Young Comedians Special on HBO. After meeting Ben Stiller outside an Elvis Costello gig, Apatow worked as a producer on The Ben Stiller Show for the FOX network. The show won an Emmy award but nonetheless, Fox cancelled the show after a year.

Jimmy Miler, Judd's manager, landed him a gig writing for the Larry Sanders Show, where he worked for five years and earned himself six Emmy nominations.

The producers of the Jim Carrey-vehicle, Cable Guy, hired Apatow to re-write Lou Holtz's original script, though the film was not as successful as he had hoped that it would be. Additionally, in 1998, Apatow rewrote a section of Adam Sandler's The Wedding Singer, though it remains un-credited.

Between 1999 and 2002, Apatow produced the TV series Freaks and Geeks, which starred Seth Rogen and Undeclared, which also featured Rogen, as well as Loudon Wainwright.

2004 proved to be Judd Apatow's breakthrough year when he produced the highly successful and critically acclaimed comedy Anchorman: the Legend of Ron Burgundy. The film starred Will Ferrell and Steve Carell, who went on to star in Apatow's next movie, The 40-Year Old Virgin.

In 2007, Knocked Up, again starring Seth Rogen, was well received by critics and fans alike. He had written the script whilst he was working on the set of Talladega Nights (which also starred Will Ferrell).

Later on in 2007, Superbad was released. Produced by Judd Apatow, the film had been written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. The film was originally intended as a vehicle for Rogen but in the end, they cast Michael Cera (who starred in Juno) and Jonah Hill as the lead characters. It wasn't until the success of Talladega Nights that Apatow was able to convince a studio to take on Superbad, or his other Rogen/Goldberg-penned movie, Pineapple Express.

In 2007, Judd Apatow worked as director on the spoof musician biopic Walk hard: The Dewey Cox Story, which starred John C. Reilly and Jenna Fischer. The film sent up previous biopics on artists such as Johnny Cash and Jim Morrison.

He then went on to produce the Owen Wilson vehicle Drillbit Taylor, which also starred his wife, Leslie Mann, though the reviews for the film were not as positive as his more recent ventures and financially, the film failed to rake back its investment.

Apatow finished 2008 by producing Forgetting Sarah Marshall, the film that starred Russell Brand as well as Kristen Bell and Mila Kunis. He also co-wrote You Don't Mess with the Zohan with Adam Sandler and Robert Smigel.

In 2009, Apatow worked as the producer on Year One a comedy starring Jack Black and Michael Cera, as well as Funny People, his third directorial outing.

Judd Apatow: Personal Life

Judd Apatow lived in Los Angeles with his wife, the actress Leslie Mann and their two daughters, Maude and Iris.

Biography by Contactmusic.com

Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen at the Los Angeles premiere of Universal Pictures' comedy 'Blockers' held at the Regency Village Theatre. Directed by Kay Cannon, the film stars Leslie Man, Ike Barinholtz and John Cena as three parents who band together to foil their daughters' plans to lose their virginity on prom night - Westwood, California, United States - Tuesday 3rd April 2018

Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann on the red carpet at the 90th Annual Academy Awards (Oscars) 2018 held at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood. This year's winner of Best Picture was 'The Shape of Water', with director Guillermo del Toro winning Best Achievement in Directing - Los Angeles, California, United States - Sunday 4th March 2018

Judd Apatow at the 2018 Producers' Guild Awards (PGA) where the coveted Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures went to Guillermo del Toro and J. Miles Dale for 'The Shape of Water' - Los Angeles, California, United States - Sunday 21st January 2018

Tommu Wiseau is an ever secretive and Louisiana-born filmmaker who directed, wrote and starred in the 2003 romantic drama 'The Room' with Greg Sestero. It's a movie that has become a cult hit among film-lovers for all the wrong reasons, as it's considered to be one of the worst films ever made.

It follows the love triangle between banker named Johnny (Tommy's character), his lying wife Lisa ( protrayed by Juliette Danielle) and his best friend Mark (who is played by Greg Sestero). Amongst the random subplots that seemingly have no relation to the plot itself, we see Johnny struggling to quash Lisa's stories that she is the victim of domestic abuse.

James Franco stars as the filmmaker while his brother Dave Franco plays Greg Sestero in 'The Disaster Artist'; a comedic retelling of Sestero's 2013 memoir and a look at the making of this iconic flick. Amusingly Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero also star in this new movie - though they portray characters Henry and the casting agent respectively. Plus, Sestero previously claimed that Wiseau would only agree to this adaptation if he would be played by either James Franco or Johnny Depp.

It may be rather long for a romantic comedy, but this film has such a strikingly original script that it grabs hold and never lets go. Based on the real-life story of actor-writer Kumail Nanjiani (Silicon Valley) and his cowriter wife Emily Gordon, the movie is packed with engaging characters who each take their own journey through a series of unexpected events. In other words, it's a clever screenplay that's beautifully played and often very, very funny.

Playing an only slightly fictionalised version of himself, Kumail is a stand-up comic in Chicago when he meets Emily (Zoe Kazan), who heckles him at one of his gigs. Their banter quickly turns to flirtation and then love. But there's a hitch in the fact that Kumail's parents (Anupan Kher and Zenobia Sfiroff) expect him to marry a nice Pakistani Muslim girl, and he doesn't want to let them down. He's even reluctant to reveal Emily to his slightly more open-minded brother (Adeel Akhtar). This strains the burgeoning romance, which takes a turn when Emily is put into an induced coma in hospital. It also forces Kumail to get to know Emily's parents (Holly Hunter and Ray Romano), who turn up to sit with him as they wait for her condition to improve.

It's rare for a rom-com to take such a serious turn, and this film plays the situation with a proper sense of dramatic tension while maintaining an awkwardly edgy comical sensibility. All of this allows characters to come to vivid life, each with his or her own big issues that need to be dealt with as they interact with other people. The network of relationships reflect real life better than most movies, exploring Kumail's professional life and his camaraderie with his fellow comics as well as the layered family bonds and his developing connection with Emily and her parents. It's also a refreshingly realistic depiction of multi-cultural society.

The comedian gave one couple a wedding present to remember when she joined their party in Dublin.

Comedian Amy Schumer and her Trainwreck director Judd Apatow became the unexpected guests at one couple’s Dublin wedding party on Friday. The pair stumbled upon the celebrations of bride Eithne McAdams and her groom J.P. Swine while out and about in the Irish capital and decided to join the party, even indulging in a traditional sing-song.

Amy Schumer makes her big screen debut with a script that feels like a much-extended sketch from her TV series. It's hilariously observant and refreshingly grown-up about sex, but the plot falls back on the usual cliches. Even with some clever twists and turns, the structure is oddly predictable. But the biggest surprise is that Schumer and director Judd Apatow ultimately cave in and take a traditional approach to romance.

As she does on her show, Schumer plays a sexually frank woman called Amy. Taught by her father (Colin Quinn) to distrust monogamy, she has indulged in a commitment-free life, rarely seeing a man more than once. And her one repeat male partner (John Cena) is a rather too self-obsessed bodybuilder. Then her boss, blithely demanding magazine editor Diana (Tilda Swinton), assigns her to interview Aaron (Bill Hader), a doctor who specialises in sports injuries. Amy can't help but seduce him; it's what she does! But in the process she realises that she actually quite likes him. This idea so rattles her that she sabotages her close relationship with her sister Kim (Brie Larson), who is expecting a child with husband Tom (Mike Birbiglia).

Schumer has impeccable comic timing, and she's hilarious all the way through this film, playing on her character's riotous way of being shockingly honest at all the wrong times. In other words, the character is entertaining but never very likeable because of the thoughtless things she does and says. So our sympathies lie with Hader, who gives an unusually layered turn as a smart, sensitive and very funny guy who just might be too good for Amy. Other characters are either here to provide emotion (Larson and Quinn) or to shamelessly steal scenes (Swinton). And Apatow brings in a usual stream of big-name cameos, including Daniel Radcliffe and Marisa Tomei in a clever pastiche of a New York indie movie.

In the 1970s came the most controversial and accessible comedy ever seen. The National Lampoon was a magazine featuring some of the most socially terrifying taboos and became a groundbreaking publication in the world of American humour. Unafraid were the editors to approach subjects regarding politics, war, sex, drugs and culture, and nothing was allowed to stay censored; it was, indeed, best known for the highly outrageous cover art that ranged from parodic images of Van Gogh and Hitler to a gun threat against a dog. From pages full of laughs came a multimedia comedic world with radio shows, music and television all spawning from that one paper. The most memorable incarnations of the Lampoon were the 'Animal House', 'Class Reunion' and 'Vacation' movies which took the whole franchise to a new level of fame.

Oscar winner Anne Hathaway has shown she’s not afraid to laugh at herself especially if Amy Schumer is making the jokes. The Princess Diaries actress took a trip to the cinema on Monday, to see Schumer’s new comedy Trainwreck and ended up enjoying the film so much she decided to tell the comedienne, even though she was used as the butt of one of the movie’s jokes.

Anne Hathaway had no problem with Amy Schumer's Trainwreck joke.

Posting a picture of her ticket stub to Instagram Hathaway wrote, "Dear @AmySchumer. Don't pretend like when you win your Oscar – which you could for your brilliant and refreshing writing and/or acting in @TrainwreckMovie – you won't tote it around to every Oscar party you go to."

It was never going to achieve an Avengers-style opening, but there are undoubtedly a few bigwigs out there who expected more from Paul Rudd's Ant-Man, which has opened to an estimated $58million in the US.

Paul Rudd ready to kick butt as Ant-Man

Marking Marvel's 12th consecutive first-place opening, Variety reports the superhero film opened comfortably in the top spot, ahead of Minions ($50.2m) in its second week.

She's taking a more considered approach when it comes to making people laugh.

The third series of her anarchic sketch show has just finished its run, and now Amy Schumer is ready for the big screen. Her first movie is Trainwreck, in which she plays a woman whose father taught her that monogamy isn't realistic. Then having lived a commitment-free life she meets a genuinely nice guy and has to re-evaluate herself.

Amy Schumer stars alongside Bill Hader in her first comedy film 'Trainwreck'

Fans of her comedy won't find that premise so much of a stretch, as it plays on themes the 34-year-old uses in her stand-up. But she was still nervous about making her big-screen writing and acting debut. "I don't think I would have even had the confidence to try to do it," she admits. "But [director-producer] Judd Apatow really encouraged me and made me feel like it was possible."

The streaming service has given Paul Reubens' iconic character a platform for his big comeback.

Pee-Wee Herman will soon be back and on a Netflix near you, as the streaming service has officially announced it's picked up Pee-Wee's Big Holiday, the latest movie starring Paul Reubens' bow tie wearing character. The film will be produced by Judd Apatow and marks the third feature length outing for the character.

Guess who's back...

“Judd and I dreamt up this movie four years ago. The world was much different back then — Netflix was waiting by the mailbox for red envelopes to arrive. I’ve changed all that. The future is here. Get used to it. Bow tie is the new black,” Paul Reubens said in a statement after the announcement was made.

Boyhood takes the top prize at the British Academy Film Awards, Fifty Shades of Grey holds its world premiere in Berlin, and new trailers arrive for Apatow's Trainwreck, the Poltergeist remake, the N.W.A. biopic, Guy Ritchie's The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and the Hitman movie...

Fifty Shadows of Grey held its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, attended by stars Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson, as well as director Sam Taylor-Johnson and her actor-husband Aaron, plus novelist E.L. James. There have been virtually no press screenings prior to the film's release this weekend.